1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a control apparatus for an audio-visual display apparatus, in which a plurality of remote control units are associated with one audio-visual display apparatus, and only one remote control unit in the plurality of remote control units can control the audio-visual display apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional remote control unit of a television receiver controls the television receiver from a position apart from the television receiver. Other than the conventional television remote control unit, a remote control unit with a cellular phone function, a remote control unit with a PDA function, and a remote control unit with a watch function are known.
PDA (Personal Digital Assistant, portable personal information terminal) is an electronic device that fits comfortably in the palm of a hand and that has some of capabilities of a personal computer.
A broadcasting system in which the television receiver is used includes a radio wave broadcasting system, an Internet broadcasting system and the like. The radio wave broadcasting system is a system for broadcasting programs via radio waves such as general terrestrial TV broadcasting system, radio broadcasting system, satellite broadcasting system, digital satellite broadcasting system and the like. The Internet broadcasting system is a system for broadcasting programs via the Internet.
Generally, the audio-visual display apparatus such as a television receiver and a video recording/reproducing apparatus is equipped with one remote control unit specific for the audio-visual display apparatus. By operating the specific remote control unit, the audio-visual display apparatus can be controlled from a place apart from the audio-visual display apparatus by using a wireless signal such as an infrared signal and a radio signal and the like.
For operating an audio-visual display apparatus such as the television receiver and the video recording/reproducing apparatus, a user generally use the remote control unit. Even when a plurality of users view a television receiver, one user having the remote control unit operates the audio-visual display apparatus for changing a channel, a volume and the like. If a user who does not have the remote control unit wants to change the channel, the user needs to borrow the remote control unit from a user having the remote control unit. It is troublesome to borrow and lend the remote control unit each time someone wants to operate the television receiver.
To solve this drawback, a plurality of remote control units may be provided so that any remote control unit can control the audio-visual display apparatus. However, in this case, a scramble for channels may occur and this may become another drawback.
To solve this drawback, Japanese laid-open patent application No.2001-61110 discloses a method for providing remote control units with priority orders to improve operability of the television receiver, and discloses a method for deciding operation from sum of the priority degrees provided to a plurality of remote control units.
The above-mentioned priority order is determined according to priority data provided to the remote control units. The priority data is similar to points, so that the higher the value (points) is, the higher the priority order is. The number of times for requesting a channel is accumulated while assigning priority degree as a weight for each channel, and a channel having the highest number of requested times is displayed.
Japanese laid-open patent application No.2000-224503 discloses a method for distinguishing viewer information according to viewer ID so that an apparatus can be associated with a plurality of viewers. In addition, Japanese laid-open patent application No.2000-253325 discloses a method for presenting recommended programs by extracting preference information of users by obtaining viewing history and comparing the history with EPG (electronic program guide).
However, according to the above-mentioned conventional examples, when a user of a remote control unit having a control right does not exist near the audio-visual display apparatus, there is a problem in that even when a user of a remote control unit that does not have the control right wants to acquire the control right, the user can not obtain the right.